THE BRAIN BUILDS PAIN

The brain builds pain. Fibromyalgia have already observed brain changes in recent studies and previous research by using advanced imaging techniques.

Pain in any part of the body is actually “built” in the brain from the information that the body sends you, and when chronic appears to be caused by “brain changes,” according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications.

The brain builds pain

This conclusion came a team from the Institute of Cognitive Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder (United States), which holds that the brain can “feel” pain in several ways, with varying degrees of intensity, even if the body stimulus It remains constant.

A recent US study found that pain anywhere in the body is “built” from the information the agency sends

chronic pain and hypersensitivity to pain

The finding help understand chronic pain and hypersensitivity to pain, hoping to find better clinical solutions for these ills, concluded the authors of the study, Woo Choong-Wan and Tor Wager doctors.

“Pain is more than just a passive response to stimuli. The brain actively contributes to pain, building it through various neural systems , “Woo said.

The researchers developed a model based on brain analysis obtained by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which predicts the pain a person feel regardless of stimulus received by the brain.

In other words, the pain that one experiences depends on the interpretation that the brain does signal that the body sends you. And that interpretation is performed in areas of the brain (such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and hippocampus) not traditionally associated with pain .

It is, however, the brain areas that determine the meaning of experiences and feelings, painful or not.

Using these brain activities, or “markers”, researchers can anticipate different levels of pain that a person will experience no matter the intensity of the stimuli.

Independent pain patterns stimulus intensity

Researchers called the “markers” for them discovered as ” pain patterns Independent stimulus intensity ” (SIIPS1, in English).

Wager, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at that university, he pointed out that chronic pain appears to be caused by “brain changes,” precisely in areas now identified in the investigation.

The brain builds pain, study images

Therefore, Wager said, the SIIPS1 model lead to “develop options for preventing and treating” chronic pain . But to reach that goal will be further research because the subject, according to Woo, has just begun to be studied.